Fulvia Sedans on the road in Italy

[chriswgawne]

There are so few Fulvia sedans on the road in the UK, they are a real rarity and whilst I don't know the actual  numbers, I believe I am right in saying that there are only 2 or 3 S1 Fulvia sedans currently UK registered and road legal.
However today I went out locally here in Italy in our Fulvia Berlina GTE to try to find someone to weld up a crack in the exhaust system where the long straight section joins the first transverse silencer. Tyre and battery workshops do not seem to do exhausts as well in this area so I needed to find a car workshop which would be prepared to do this sort of repair and not simply say that a replacement was needed (the exhaust  system on the car is generally in very good order apart from the split so well worth repairing even though a complete new centre section incl silencer is only around €140 delivered).
I have never had to use a local workshop before in this area so after a couple of abortive visits this morning, around 11.00am I ended up at a workshop about 2 km from our house who were happy to tackle the job having lifted the car up in the air and inspected the system and the problem area.
The point of this post is that also in the workshop was another Ostend Green S1 Fulvia Sedan ( a GT) for service in vgc and also a white S2 Sedan for new brakes incl resealing the master cylinder and a tune up. The workshop does not specialise in either Lancia or old cars - they will do anything - but it is comforting to know that they exist and are so helpful. I collected the car this afternoon and they had kept it up on the lift to show me that they had let a new piece of metal in and welded it very neatly and then painted the whole area so it looks like new...and all for €50. And the other 2 Fulvia Sedans were also ready for collection this afternoon.
And then my neighbour Alessandro told me this evening of another workshop about 3 km in the opposite direction (Mario's) where Mario is an expert on Lancias of the '60s and will tackle anything and at a v reasonable price. Apparently he drives a maroon S2 1.3 Fulvia Coupe.
So all in all a good day.
Chris

[stanley sweet]

I had a similar experience just a few weeks ago here in France. After giving up on my temperamental (and rebuilt once already) S2 Coupe lightswitch I was given the name of a chap who runs a garage in an out of the way little village about 20 minutes away. The place was nothing special looking, just a good old fashioned garage with scrap cars laying in a field nearby. After I discussed the problem, he asked if I wanted to see another one? He took me to a large outbuilding and there was a 1600HF in Marlboro colours that had just been sold and was in to have a few jobs done. There was also a Sunbeam Tiger, Big Healey, WW2 Jeep and his own 1936 Peugeot. I remember thinking that if you walked through the village you'd never guess there were two Fulvias lurking nearby. Anyway, he fitted a discreet rotary light switch down on the lower dash so everything looks original on the column but I now have lights that I control rather than making their own decisions. He seems to be able to turn his hand to anything or knows someone who can. For instance, one job on the 1600 was retrimming the leather steering wheel. As you say, it's comforting to know a place like that. It's taken me 7 years to find somewhere that understands old cars and treats them with respect. Each year he and a friend take his 1936 Peugeot to the Goodwood Revival. They obviously amble along the old French roads at a steady speed as it takes him 3 days! It was such a pleasure to go on the Fulvia Knights rally and click the lights on through tunnels etc and they lit! You get so used to living with problems like that that suddenly a working light switch seems like the greatest invention in the world.